The invention relates to a device converting to heat mechanical energy picked up from a rotating shaft.
In practical uses of thermal degradation of mechanical energy a number of requirements must be simultaneously met so that such an operation is effected with a good efficiency. In particular, if a device for converting rotational kinetic energy to heat does not operate with constant speed, it must be matched to the characteristics of the machine which drives the primary shaft.
In an important use of the invention where said machine will be a wind turbine the power amount picked up thereby will vary as the cube value of the wind speed, under optimum efficiency conditions which are characterized by an operation at a constant specific speed, which is equal to the ratio from the rotor peripheral speed to the wind speed. It results therefrom that the energy converter should ideally dissipate a power amount proportional to the cube of the shaft rotational speed and accordingly, have a resistant torque proportional to the square of said rotational speed.